49ers 20, Browns 10: Still no offensive spark

SAN FRANCISCO - Is it possible to lose a football game on the second play of the game?

SAN FRANCISCO — Is it possible to lose a football game on the second play of the game?

For the Cleveland Browns this season, you bet.

That’s what happened yesterday in decrepit Candlestick Park on a brilliantly sunny day by the bay. There was a lot of talk afterward about fighting through the long day and of making a game of it before losing 20-10. But the fact is they lost to the San Francisco 49ers on the second play when linebacker Ahmad Brooks beat Browns right tackle Tony Pashos with an inside move and strip-sacked Colt McCoy of the ball.

In five plays, Frank Gore was in the end zone, and the rout was on. The tough, physical 49ers rolled to a 17-0 lead and cruised to their sixth win in seven games. The Browns, held without a touchdown in the first and third quarters for the seventh straight game, fell to 3-4.

“I know Brownstown is really upset, but one thing they can be excited about is our effort,” said receiver Josh Cribbs, who scored the only Cleveland touchdown on a 45-yard reception in the fourth quarter. “I hope back home they won’t get into a frenzy like the world’s going to end with this loss.”

But the sight of watching the same game over and over has to be straining everyone’s faith and patience. Such a hopeless offensive effort has been seen so many times this season.

This was simply another, complete with the obligatory muscle injury to a running back early in the game.

Two weeks earlier in Oakland, Peyton Hillis suffered a pulled hamstring and hardly played. Yesterday, with Hillis still out of the lineup, replacement Montario Hardesty suffered a calf muscle injury in the first quarter. He left for good by the second quarter.

That left the running game, blitz pickup and the outlet pass role to third back Chris Ogbonnaya, who joined the team two weeks ago. He played virtually every snap after replacing Hardesty with about 1:43 left in the first quarter. Ogbonnaya had 37 yards rushing and 24 yards on five receptions.

When McCoy was able to get rid of the ball, the 49ers’ secondary delivered smash hits to Browns receivers. Greg Little was bounced around like a chrome ball in a pinball machine. He took one vicious hit to the head by safety Dashon Goldson in the second quarter and bounced right up.

Goldson was penalized 15 yards, which helped the Browns advance far enough for a 52-yard field goal by Phil Dawson just before halftime — his career-high fourth of the season from 50 or more. By then, though, the 49ers had rolled up 17 points, scoring on three of their first four possessions. The only time they didn’t, linebacker D’Qwell Jackson stopped Gore on three successive carries from inside the Cleveland 2-yard line.

Besides losing the fumble on a hit he never saw coming, McCoy was intercepted in the third quarter when he threw for Little in the end zone in double coverage.

McCoy completed 22 of 34 passes for 241 yards. His 45-yard pass play to Cribbs closed the score to 17-10 with 6:17 to play.

But on their next possession, the 49ers killed the Browns for the second time in the game with a surprise pass to a lineman. This time it was Isaac Sopoaga breaking the defense’s back with a 18-yard play on third-and-3. It led to San Francisco’s clinchding field goal.

The 49ers’ first field goal drive was aided by a surprise pass to left tackle Joe Staley, who lined up as a tight end.

Gore ran for 134 yards on 31 carries, with 103 yards coming in the first half

Cribbs lamented the team’s usual slow beginning.

“The beginning haunts us, coming out awful,” he said. “We finish like a Super Bowl team. We just start like the worst football team.”